Review: Vegetarians feast in the Permian - 'The Dicynodonts: A Study in Palaeobiology' by Gillian King

MEET the dicynodonts: these enchantingly ugly, short-tailed quadrupedal reptiles, ranging from rabbit to pig size, were the first terrestrial vertebrates to release the nutrients locked up inside tough plant cell walls. Their mandibles moved fore and aft, actuated by powerful, obliquely arranged muscles in the short, heavy head. Food was picked up, cut off or torn away by a horny beak and pulverised between horny plates (sometimes helped by teeth) when the mandible was forcibly pulled backwards. This key adaptation of dicynodonts led to the first great adaptive radiation of land herbivores during the Permian and Triassic between 290 and 208 million years ago.

Hardly athletic, dicynodonts ambled along on four firmly planted feet. The large head and tubby body, full of fermenting vegetable matter, were supported by the sprawling forelimbs and propelled ...

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